These NIMBYs can delude themselves as much as they want to: the evidence from around the country is clear that in City Council elections, it's the broader issues that matter more than rain gardens and rezones. O'Brien is on solid ground here in District 6 and this NIMBY yahoo is going to have her hands full trying to defeat a widely popular and well-liked incumbent.

Good. If districts get the City to be more focused on making sure municipal services work, rather than having the Council try and fix international environmental and social ills, great!

@2, What ? You don't see the value of council resolutions to boycott Arizona and condemn Russia's treatment of gays ?

I wonder if the current council is starting to feel differently about their proposed/shelved public financing of campaigns now that they've got a slew of challengers.

But Mike Obrien is not focused on big picture issues. It's disingenuous to say he is. Things Mike has done: passed the bag ban, passed the phone book opt-out (overturned by shitty ruling), raised concerns about coal trains (which run through BALLARD), priority hire, campaigned for more bus service and better bike facilities. I do NOT buy that Mike is less focused on issues affecting this district than Catherine is. It sounds good, but doesn't hold up.

@4, I'm pretty sure the city council unanimously passed the bag ban, after the council had a majority vote passing a bag fee that the voters of Seattle overturned in a public vote.

The phone book opt out cost $500,000 in a settlement that gave money to the makers of yellowpages plus an additional $265,000 in legal fees to an outside firm. Every Seattle resident just lost $1 due to Mike (and other council's) efforts on a phone book registry.
http://jeffreifman.com/2013/02/26/why-yo…

It seems so unfair that Mike might have to do his job, in addition to expressing his opinions on political issues outside his jurisdiction. Where can I send flowers?

She's worried about moving vans parking on the street while people move into mini-apartments? The amount of furniture you can get into those places wouldn't fill a Toyota Corolla. Wow, what important issues she cares about.

@1, you think O'Brien is "a widely popular and well-liked incumbent"? I don't think so: lowest in-district "favorable" polling of any incumbent (30%), and highest "can't rate/never heard of" (59%).

This lady sounds like a crank. I doubt she'll affect anyone's campaigning much.

@5, Yeah... Let's hold Mike O'Brien accountable for trying to tell the makers of phone books that they shouldn't be allowed to drop pounds of unwanted paper onto people's private property. And let's blame him for costing the City money because a court decided that it somehow restricts the "free speech rights" of those corporate persons to physically leave remnants of that speech -- unwanted -- on my private property. What an entirely crazy idea to suggest a centralized place where people -- not customers, people -- could choose to tell those corporate persons that they do not wish to accept this "free speech" on their private property.

@5 I think that the phone book opt out registry is worth at least a dollar to me and probably even more to Seattle Public Utilities, whose ratepayers must get rid of whatever crap these companies drop at their doorsteps. And that is the outcome of O'Brien's legislation to me.

@8 Toby, O'Brien's ratio of favorable to unfavorable is great, and I can't think of anyone on the council who is more accessible and isn't retiring.

@12 -- Are you reading the same poll? His stats are at the bottom of the incumbents in-district with 30:11 (59 dk). Bagshaw is next in District 7 with 38:8 (53 dk). Mike has lots of work to do to convince District 6 voters he knows how to represent them. E.g., check out http://www.seattlechannel.org/videos/vid… starting at about 18:30.

The disappointing thing is that Mike is indeed better (more consistently liberal) than 5 of the other 6 incumbents still running. (Sawant is so different it's hard to compare.) That says more about the bar the others are setting, than on Mike's qualifications to represent Ballard, Fremont, Phinney, and Greenlake. He should have run at-large, but his polling city wide was also at the bottom (30:10).